Settings

Settings provide the ability to customize the appearance and behavior of an application, a Plasma widget, or the Plasma Workspace. Dedicated settings views are intended for settings that are persistent but not changed very frequently.

A settings page for the Plasma Desktop is referred to as a KCM (KDE Config Module). KCMs can either appear in Plasma's System Settings app, or as standalone configuration dialogs.

Example

Guidelines

When to Use

  • Use a settings page to display settings that are persistent but infrequently accessed or changed. Settings that are frequently accessed and changed (e.g. an icon view style or list's sort order) should be located close to the views or tools that they affect, such as in the window's toolbar.
  • Don't use a settings page to change the properties of a selected item. Instead, use a properties dialog or a contextual editing panel.
  • Don't use a settings page for potentially dangerous developer settings like the name of an SQL table. Instead, use configuration files or separate dialogs.

How to Use

  • Simple by default: Define smart and polite defaults so that your target users don't have to alter them at all.
  • Powerful when needed: Provide enough settings for the perfect customization according to individual needs and preferences. But even though customizability is very important for KDE software, try to keep your settings page as small and simple as possible. Remember: every option requires more code and more testing, and makes the settings page slower to use.
  • Respect the privacy of the users: Always use opt-in, never an opt-out model for features that transmit potentially private data (e.g. usage statistics). See KDE's Telemetry Policy for details.
  • Following KDE's "Simple by default, powerful when needed" design mantra settings can be split into common and advanced groups. Advanced settings are not important to most users but essential for some. There therefore cannot be removed, but they can be de-emphasized in visual weight.

Behavior

  • When a change is applied, the application should adopt it immediately without the need to restart it.
  • Don't change the settings page depending on the context. It should always start with the same landing page regardless of the application context.
  • Don't use a wizard to change settings. Only use a wizard if a group of settings are all interrelated and must be edited all at once, e.g. setting up an email account.
  • If some of the program's settings are only applicable in certain contexts, don't hide the inapplicable ones. Instead, disable them and hint to the user why they're disabled. Exception: it is acceptable to hide settings for non-existent hardware. For example, it's okay to hide the touchpad configuration when no touchpad is present, or hide multi-screen controls when only one screen is connected.
  • Consider adding access to third-party add-ons via Get New Stuff!.
  • Ctrl + Tab should switch between logical groups of controls.

Appearance

  • Place the main title at the top left corner of the window or view your form is placed in.

  • For a desktop app, put your settings page inside a dialog window. On mobile, use a full-screen view for your settings page.

  • Place Help, Defaults, Reset, OK, Apply, and Cancel buttons on the bottom of the dialog window.

  • If there is a Get New Stuff! button, place it above the bottom row of buttons.

    The Help, Defaults, Reset buttons on the left side.

  • Avoid vertical and especially horizontal scrollbars. The dialog should be large enough to fit its contents without scrolling being necessary. As more controls are added, err on the side of adding additional pages or tabbed views rather than making the dialog window larger. This does not apply to scrollbars within inline tables, lists and grid views.

There are several well established layouts for settings that are used throughout KDE software:

Forms

Notifications settings in a form layout

Use a form if your settings have many controls and input fields.

  • Lay out your settings page according to the alignment guidelines.
  • Organize your settings into logical groups, with more important groups appearing higher up on the page. Separate the groups with whitespace or put them into different tabs of a tabbed view (if appropriate).
  • Separate common and advanced settings into different groups. If necessary, hide the advanced settings behind a collapsible group box or on another page or tab. Make the common settings comprehensible and easy to use.

Grid

Choose a new wallpaper

Use a grid for a selection of a single item when all items are visually distinctive.

Lists

Language settings

Use a picker for selection and configuration of list based settings where the items are not visually distinctive.